Bottled it- Willie Collum returns to script on his Ibrox reprieve

Willie Collum was back on message at Ibrox tonight as he helped deliver a Scottish Cup quarter-final place with Morton expected to follow Ayr United to Ibrox in tomorrow’s draw.

Following their defeat in the December 30 Glasgow Derby the Ibrox club went to war with Collum very much the main target.

Two statements were sent to media partners with a list of demands including the release of audio for an offside incident in the 2-1 defeat away to the champions.

The SFA never said a word or raised any disrepute charges, a third statement had an extra element for the Heart & Hand podcast as they revealed that a demand had gone in for Collum not to be involved in future matches.

That was never a realistic expectation but it did send out a message to referees to ensure that they stayed on message. No special instructions were ever required for John Beaton, Alan Muir, Steven McLean, Nick Walsh or David Dickinson. Full time VAR officials Andrew Dallas and Greg Aitken got to their current roles by knowing what is expected.

After being overlooked for four SPFL matches a home cup tie with Ayr United was a low risk fixture to pretend that Ian Maxwell doesn’t follow orders from Ibrox.

The Lanarkshire based official gave every decision in one direction, he won’t get another meaningful game involving the Ibrox club this season but he can be integrated back into the network next season.

In the first half Connor Goldson escaped unpunished for a late lunge at the foot of an opponent.

Fabio Silva was booked during the first half which created an issue when he flew in late near the by-line early in the second half. As Michael Stewart correctly called it Collum bottled out of the second yellow that he would issue against any other team.

On Viaplay Sport co-commentary duties Stewart said:

Scott Brown is not happy about it, you can tell he is very much not impressed with what has happened there.

That is more of a yellow card than the first one. I thought the first one was very harsh.

I’ll be honest. Willie Collum has bottled it there. The first one was very harsh. That was much more of a booking. The referee was bottled it.